


Red Strings and Soulmates and What Nonsense

by Tasha Bee (Unseelieknight)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-10-09 04:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unseelieknight/pseuds/Tasha%20Bee
Summary: Iruka shrugs, “Naruto doesn’t know how we live our lives, just the big parts. That I train pre-genin and that you run the village nin. That we both love him as if he were our own son.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lutzaussi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/gifts).



> It's coming up valentine's day and all you can think about are the two fictional characters that have taken over your life. It's been months. A new year. Why do they matter to you so much. They make you happy and you think that is enough reason to write this alternate universe. You do not notice how you can't say their names when you speak about them.  
> Thank you Tori, your writings on these characters have brought me such joy, brought me out of a terrible art block, and just man, you're fantastic, thank you so much, and with that, I shall reread One Summer's Day for the umpteenth time.

It’s been a busy year; fixing the village, seeing Naruto and Hinata wed, forming proper alliances with countries they’ve been amicable with. Kakashi thinks he’s doing a great job so far, despite the shit fest they all had to go through to get him to sit in the hokage’s chair.

He’s listening to the little ham radio he had set up in the office, the music keeps the room from running silent, keeps him from drifting into small and sad thoughts about the wars. He starts tapping his fingers in beat with the pianos and horns while he looks over his new stack of paperwork, and feels a little bit at peace.

There’s a knock at the door, a light rap, and it’s news but not too urgent. He allows their entry.

“Kakashi,” Shikaku greets, a light nod and he makes his way to the little radio, “there’s something you need to hear,” they turn the little knobs and wade through the static until they get the station he wants.

“- There have been claims from the general public that there’s been sighting of red threads tied around your little fingers. Like the myth, Red Strings of Fate, they’re calling them, or Strings for short. So if you follow your little red string, you’ll find your soulmate at the other end. 

“They aren’t happening to everyone all at once, oh no, just a few at a time get this sight, I wouldn’t believe it myself, but the station manager ran out yesterday when, he had seen his own String plain as day -” Shikaku tunes it out and looks to Kakashi.

Kakashi is at a loss as to what to say. Sounds like something out of a fantasy, a romance novel, something he’s read in an Icha Icha novel. He doesn’t think this is real, but a story being read over the radio.

“Shikamaru experienced it yesterday too,” Shikaku says, “it went past the village walls.” 

Kakashi frowns at that. Shikamaru is the top of his year, wouldn’t make this up even if someone had paid him to - he’s far too logical.

“That could mean anything at all,” Kakashi states.

“I found my wife at the end of my own three days ago.”

Kakashi has nothing to say to that. “Do we know anything else?” he asks instead.

“Other than the civilian reports, nothing.”

“Find out as much as you can,” Kakashi decides, “I don’t want to end up a trap.”  
Shikaku nods, and while Kakashi tries to ignore the exasperated sigh that escapes the man’s lips, he’s been through enough strife to be wary of traps. He dismisses Shikaku.

Soulmates. 

He turns to look out the window, and doesn’t believe this hocus pocus to be more than some new trap or something funny in the water. Logically makes no sense.

There’s a knock on the door, confident but hides no messages, he allows entry to the man.

Umino Iruka walks through the door and Kakashi is confused. Their shogi game isn’t for another week, and it’s too early for tea.

“Kakashi-san,” Iruka greets with a light bow that Kakashi has tried to dismiss for months now, “Nara Shikaku sent me here.” Of course, Shikaku arranged this. Send in the most amicable ninja to do recon for this task.

“Is it Naruto? Do you have a mission for me?”

With his friendliest of smiles, Kakashi waves off the questions and tells the man what he is to do.

There are cases from all over Konoha, about people finding red strings tied around their little fingers, tying them to another soul. Is it a new genjutsu? An enemy of Konohagakure? These are his first questions. They made sense. It was right to fear for the worst possible thing. To jump to and dwell on.

Iruka thought that was foolish, but set to find out regardless.

He sent his best genjutsu users to try to break it. They found nothing. Could have meant it was just a really good genjutsu. The look he receives leaves him sleepless for nights until Iruka fixes him some tea.

He sends Ibiki to find something out, learn anything he can about the phenomenon. He had high hopes for this tactic at uncovering the truth about the red lines. Until I&T came back with a shrug, but bearing a very detailed report. He thanked them for their effort and dismissed the mission.

Iruka gives him such a smug look, Kakashi figures out ten ways to wipe it off his face in the time it takes him to hand him his new report on the red strings.

“Here,” he says, “a civilian report.” 

After a quick leaf through, Kakashi thanks him for his work, and dismisses the mission altogether.

Some weeks after his initial, healthy paranoia, the letters started to arrive. Why it took so long for everyone to question the sudden appearance, this new sense, this sudden ability to find one's soul mate, he’ll never understand. But regardless, it confirms that it’s worldwide, and for that, he’s a little grateful. 

But to every good, there is a bad and the letters, in various levels of discreteness, ask him if he’s seen his own thread.

Which is stupid. He believes he won’t get one. He knows he won’t have one. There is no one who he wants to burden with being tied to him.

There’s a shout from the other room, Iruka has found the teapot and Kakashi bites his lip.

He responds to the letter, detailing everything he knows about the Strings, the age range, the disregard for sex or gender identity and the lack of confinement to their own walls. He doesn’t mention his status, it’s not important.

Kakashi finishes writing the letters and leans back into his chair to flick through his favourite copy of Icha Icha. 

He watches Iruka walk back into the room, catches the roll of his eyes when he sees his reading material, watches as he brews them a fresh pot of tea, taking in every miniscule detail of the ceremony. 

He sets the tray onto Kakashi’s desk, placing a cup in his reach, “You’re tense,” he observes, “it’s harmless. You’ve proven it’s harmless.” He means the red strings and Kakashi only wants to believe his words. He wants to take this in the same stride Iruka is, and just trust fate knows what it’s doing.

“Can’t be too relaxed when you’re looking out for a whole village of trained soldiers,” he replies instead. To which he received a very “done with your shit” huff and a comfortable silence.

He could enjoy this all day, he thinks, and selfishly takes, and holds on to this moment every other moment like it, to keep him floating.

He closes his eyes when he notices Iruka look to his fingers.

__________________________________________

It’s been several weeks since the phenomenon began, and Iruka has watched as his friends and coworkers find their soul mates. Izumo and Kotetsu find themselves stuck together for life, it seems and really, no one found that surprising. Iruka listens to Anko’s half-drunken ramblings when she sits herself under his kotatsu, and bemoans the current events. He consoles her and watches with amusement as she finds the I&T commander Ibiki at the other end of her Thread some days later. He does not care for the sex life she tells him about afterwards.

Sometimes he’ll catch himself glancing down at his pinky, wondering what kind of person fate has matched him with, but other than that, he isn’t bothered. He’s not sure if it’s all nonsense, fumes, or real, but whatever, he thinks, people are happy. 

He sets aside his paperwork and sets to make some dinner. After looking over the contents of his fridge, he decides he’s in the mood for eggplant miso and gets to work. Not long after he sets his eggplant to boil, there’s a bang at the door.

Naruto races into Iruka’s apartment, his eyes budding with tears and Iruka is very much concerned.

“I found them,” he breathes and grin widening.

“Congratulations,” Iruka responds without a blink and a smile growing on his own face.

The boy, no, young man Iruka corrects, shakes his head fervently and starts speaking, but it’s too fast and Iruka isn’t sure he can keep up.

“You have multiple?” Iruka gets out at long last.

A confident nod and a blinding smile, “Yeah! It goes short for a bit, but then sort of splits off into a bunch of directions. I found Hinata and Sakura, and they seem pretty okay about sharing a soul mate, cause it seems Sakura and Ino are also tied together? I don’t know, it’s weird. Anyway, I followed the other two, but they go past the village walls. I found Sakura at one of the spots, she’s got another soulmate too, so I think that one’s Sasuke…”

Naruto goes silent, lost in conflicting feelings about that, no doubt, but there’s something else. Something Iruka is sure has to relate to the unknown soul he’s tied too.

So Iruka smiles that encouraging smile he does that makes you feel like you aren’t rambling your tongue off and Naruto finds the courage to continue. 

“I need to know who that last one is. Ya know, I have a gut feeling it’s who I think it is, but you can’t send a letter like “so yeah, I think you’re my soulmate,” can you.” He laughs and Iruka resists messing up his hair. He loses the battle, and ruffles the blonde locks as he laughs.

“I was making dinner, would you like some-” he turns to the kitchen to find his miso over boiled and very unappetizing. “Nevermind” he says, and Naruto makes a comment that he’s just as bad as Kakashi-sensei. He scoffs at that. Kakashi would have at least finished the task before getting caught up in Naruto’s loud presence. 

“Well, ok,” Iruka starts and looks at the boy. Really looks. This child has endured so much loneliness and here he is, brimming with so much love and acceptance towards the world that had wronged him. He kinda tears up thinking about it.

“Ichiraku’s, eat all you want, my treat.” he says, rubbing his eyes with his arm.

“Ah! Iruka-nii, don’t cry!” Naruto panics, waving around unsure how to console him

“But I love you so much and am so happy for you!” he chokes out a sob.

Naruto settles for a hug is the best medicine, and embraces him “thanks dad,” he says softly, and honestly, it just sets off more tears.

As they walk out the door, Iruka notes to give Kakashi a new report on soulmates, how they don’t just tie two people together. 

_________________________________________________

There’s a loud knock on the front door, and before he can get up to answer it, Naruto barges in loudly announcing his arrival, and oh, there’s Sakura chastising him.

“Kakashi-sensei!” the boy sings and Kakashi sighs, resigns himself to a not quiet night, and gets up. 

“And what do I owe the pleasure?” he drolls as he enters the main room. 

His students grin cheekily, “we came for some tea.” And Kakashi just shakes his head as he saunters off to prepare a pot.

Minutes later, they’re all seated and drinking their fresh tea, Kakashi is exhausted of the small talk, and asks why they really came to visit him at nine in the evening. 

He’s greeted with silence, but it’s not too heavy and he thinks if he tried enough, he could hear them conspire together in their heads, some sort of telepathy they had going on, he’s tired of it and knows this isn’t a social call. They’re up to something and he’s on edge for it.

“We’re soulmates,” they say in unison. 

Oh. 

Okay. 

Well he wasn’t, in any life time, prepared for that announcement. He knew Naruto was going to tell him he and Hinata were getting married, it was as if they were wearing shirts that said they were married the whole time they were together. But this, this was all to new. Too foreign for his tastes.

And what about Hinata, Naruto had just married the girl not just a couple weeks ago - 

“Not just with each other!” Sakura quickly adds when Kakashi doesn’t make any sort of apparent acknowledgement. “With other people too.”

Well that’s something none of his reports mentioned.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m also with Hinata and two other people who live outta the village.” Naruto counts off his fingers. He suddenly pales and starts mumbling something about his worries about Hinata when the red strings started showing up. 

Kakashi waves him off. Nonsense. He turns to face Sakura, “and yourself?”

He must have used too much hokage magic, because she straightens like a whip and nods, “I have Ino and someone else outside as well.” 

“Do you think…” he starts, wants to finish his sentence, wants to ask if they think Sasuke is their soulmate outside the walls. 

Naruto’s musings silent to hear the unspoken question and Sakura bites her lip.

“Yes.” They say, with a confident nod. 

He lets out a sigh he doesn’t know he was holding.

“Well, you’re here now. Do you want something to eat? I just made some miso with eggplant.”

Naruto barks out a laugh to that for some reason, nothing about what he just said was funny. So they opt to ignore his sudden giggle fits. 

“I’m good thanks,” Sakura smiles, “Ino and I just had dinner.”

“Same, but Iruka treated me to ramen.” Naruto manages between a shit eating grin, “It was all I could eat.”

Iruka. He was told first. Kakashi figures he’s jealous. The last to learn. He’d like it more if he were first on the list, or if they were told at the same time. Yes, together, it wouldn’t be fair to the other man if he wasn’t informed first. He after all was there for Naruto first.

“You’re gonna eat that man out of house and home,” Sakura scolds her soulmate and Kakashi just smiles to that.

The rest of the night they share stories and Naruto recalls Haku and Zabuza, and wonders if they were tied by a red string as well. 

When they’re putting their shoes on, Naruto is laughing about how when he told Iruka, the man forgot to turn off the stove so he had ruined his eggplant miso. 

Kakashi decides that yeah, that is pretty funny and chuckles. 

He sees them off and faces the rest of the night tossing between what-ifs and why-nots. 

_______________

Iruka’s supervising the playground during lunch, keeping an eye out for hidden weapons and trips that hurt too much for small children, when he feels a familiar presence stroll up besides him.

“Good afternoon Kakashi-san,” Iruka greets, taking a moment to turn away from the swarm of untrained ninja, to dip a little bow.

“‘Afternoon to you too, sensei,” Kakashi watches with amusement as his hair bobs and doesn’t blink as Iruka deflects a stray kunai heading towards his face. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

Iruka’s cheeks burn up to that. He can’t say “it’s automatic around pre-genin,” or “it’s my duty,” or even “can’t have a pre-genin arrested for assaulting the hokage, can we,” because the man will be insufferable with any of those responses, and there’s only twenty minutes left to lunch and getting into a row with the rokudaime isn’t on his itinerary for the day.

So he settles for small talk instead, “And what brings our hokage to the academy on such a fine day?” he asks just loud enough for the children closest to hear. 

Kakashi picks up at the loudness of the question, too loud for a quiet conversation between adults and he visibly winces when a child screams a greeting. 

Kakashi sends him a look. Iruka takes pleasure in the look of pure disdain captured in his fish like gaze. 

Children crowd around Kakashi’s feet, jumping for questions from the coolest ninja in the village - who isn’t Naruto. Iruka tosses him such a smug look and all Kakashi wants to do wipe it off his face. Honestly, he thinks he’s handling it pretty well. He hasn’t left yet, that’s a very good sign.

“Naruto found his soulmates” Iruka chirps.

“I heard.” Kakashi nods as he lets a young Inuzaka hang off his arms, “Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke, right.” Naruto and Sakura had told him just the other night.

“Don’t forget the kazekage,” Iruka supplies. 

That’s news to Kakashi. But it makes sense. The brat had just taken a mission to Suna, sneaky devil, he was using it at an excuse to get out of the village to follow the string. 

“My bad, I’m still shocked about it.” 

The man laughs and it sends a jolt of electricity and warms feelings straight to his heart. 

“Naruto only told me last night, he sent a frog to deliver the letter.” Kakashi doesn’t pout under his mask. Wasn’t he at Naruto’s wedding to Hinata as a father figure? Rude not to share his news. 

Iruka must have a bloodline limit that can see past fabric or into his mind, because Kakashi is sure there’s no trace of emotion on his face, but the teacher tells him not to worry.

“Naruto knows you’re ‘super busy’ with hokage stuff. He said to tell you if I saw you before he got back.”

Well, that was considerate. “The mission said it would be a month long excursion.” 

Iruka shrugs, “being a kage is busy work and he’s sure there’s no time for social visits.” 

“We meet every week for shogi. And we have tea at three almost every day. You’re on the board as Head Academy Administrator,” Kakashi lists, raising a brow.

Iruka shrugs, “Naruto doesn’t know how we live our lives, just the big parts. That I train pre-genin and that you run the village nin. That we both love him as if he were our own son.”

Kakashi is sure that last part isn’t meant for their nine year old audience. He’s sure that statement is for tea time, just before Iruka goes home for the night and leaves Kakashi tossing in bed, trapped in that thought and it’s implications. 

He’s read too much Icha Icha he decides as the man quarrels the children out from under Kakashi’s feet. But he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t mind any of what that statement implies. 

______________________________________________

One summer's day, Kakashi finds himself neglecting the towering pile of paperwork on his desk in favour of rereading his (current) favourite Icha Icha novel. It's the one with the young medic nin that saves the life of a mysterious masked stranger who turns out to be on the enemy forces. They disregard their warring factions and find themselves falling in love. He's not sure why he loves this particular volume so much; if it's because they're a homosexual couple, or the strange likeness the young ninja has with a friend of his, it's uncertain.

He's reading the part where the two ninja cross into no man's land and are finding out what two men in a single bed roll are capable of when there's a light squeeze, a burning sensation, a tingle, around his pinky. He pays it no mind but then the realization hits him like a bucket of cold water. Peeking out from behind the pages, he checks over his little finger and sure as he's alive, there it is, the red thread. 

His stomach drops and he might just throw up: it can't be real. What did he do to deserve this. 

But there's hope he thinks. He feels it in his stomach, a pang, a surge of hope that makes him feel just a little woozy. 

There’s a knock at the door and before they can announce themselves, he's gone.

He appears a few feet from the academy and his thread is heading directly for it. His throat tightens and he follows, feeling as if he’s running. 

It's late in the day, the only teachers left at the school now should be the workaholics - and he banks on that fact, prays to what god's remain, that the soul at the end of this string is who he thinks it is. He doesn’t know what he’d do if it isn’t who he thinks it to be. Can’t see himself with any other probability, maybe Gai, but the man had found that his own string went out of the country and requested Lee to assist him in following it. They wouldn’t be back for at least another week. He holds his breath as he passes through the entrance to the school. 

He finds himself chanting “last door on the left, last door on the left, last door on the left” as he leisurely strolls through the corridors of the school, and he has to bite his tongue to chastise, to calm himself. No use in getting his hopes up so high. 

He sees the thread pass through the last door on the left and in that moment, he's suddenly through the door and there is Iruka, caught up in grading papers, the man hasn't noticed the searing pain emanating through his pinky finger, let alone the deep red thread tying them together.  

He opens his mouth to greet Kakashi and he feels like he's drowning. He needs to leave. Get some air. To breathe. He vanishes.

______________________________________________

“And what brings the hokage to my classroom on this beautiful day?” Iruka grins, not glancing up from the bad grammar on a pop quiz about the practicality of using jutsu to clean. He expects Kakashi to sit on a desk, most likely his own, and state that it isn’t a beautiful day because he’s having such and such issue, just to keep himself entertained while Iruka struggles to send him away with new injuries.

He’s scribbling notes on his paper for a few moments before he looks up to find out why Kakashi hasn’t spoken yet. 

Iruka finds nothing but an empty classroom and silence. Strange, didn’t Kakashi just walk in? He could have sworn the man was just here.

There’s a burning squeeze around hs pinky and he laughs, “Oh,” following the red string trail out of the classroom and into the corridor, “I didn’t notice.”

He has a sneaking suspicion that the hokage wasn’t here for a social call. And that thought leaves him feeling a little bit bitter. What a coward his soulmate is sometimes. He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, wearily looking over the work he knows he won’t get done now. Now he has to track down a ninja and lecture them about how running away from battles isn’t beneficial for warriors. And maybe smack them upside the head. And just maybe kiss them. Just maybe, and he doesn’t fight the smile that breaks over his face as he throws his papers into his bag and races out the door to track down the stupid ninja.

He doesn’t find him for four days. The man is evading his every step and all Iruka wants to do is scream from atop hokage mountain, bellowing out to the entire populace that his soul mate the Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi is stupid and he wishes the man’s Icha Icha collection burn.

But that's ridiculous. He can't do that. He's a grown man not a young hot blooded boy.

So he settles for pranks. He rigs the places Kakashi will be with eraser chalk bombs, spreads wasabi down the kettle’s spout, replaces every Icha Icha volume he’s hidden in the office with a dictionary with bookmarks on the words he feels are fitting. His favourite being the one hidden in the palm tree, where he has noted the words you, piece, of and shit. He can only hope Kakashi gets tired of their game, because Iruka is sure he can continue making up ways to torment his soulmate, the thorn in his side. 

So he's taking a shift at the mission room, smiling at the busy ninja as they pass by, pointing out flaws in mission reports, and generally being all too happy for anyone to be comfortable around.

“Did you find your soulmate?” Genma asks.

“Who knows,” Iruka shrugs still chipper.

“Who indeed,” Iruka turns and there's Kakashi. 

Took him long enough, Iruka thinks, ten days and eleven hours. Not that he’s counting.

“Iruka,” Kakashi greets him at the mission desk, and Iruka gives him a pointed look, something he hopes carries his pure unamusement. Kakashi seems to grimace. Iruka takes this as a success.

“Kakashi-san,” Iruka nods and watches Kakashi recoil at the honorific. Good, he thinks, he’s feeling bad about his actions.

“I’d like to talk to you,” Kakashi nods, and Iruka smiles too sweetly.

Kakashi, the man at the other end of his thread, which he can clearly see, with the man standing right in front of him, his soulmate, has been avoiding him for far too long. Iruka is tired of it, but he’s too stubborn to fall at the man’s feet after all this time he’s been running away from him. He can run away too. 

“I’m sorry sir, I don’t have the time for a chat today. Maybe some other time?” He’s playing the game correctly, dodging and avoiding the other player, never bringing up the obvious burning sensation emanating from the pinky finger that ties them together. He makes an awkward laugh as he scratches the back of his neck, completing the act.

“Now,” Kakashi’s says, his voice a little too desperate for Iruka’s comfort, his eyes a little too dark and his posture just too stiff. It leaves Iruka speechless.

But not for too long as Iruka goes to remedy it, say that he can maybe make some time later today, but as soon as he suggests it, his attention is called for and he’s being dragged away from the hokage and the mission desk and into some archive to help look for a scroll he could care less about.

He thinks he made the wrong move.

Several hours later, he trudges back to his apartment, sporting new paper cuts and a stiff back and a terrible mood. Who knew searching for scrolls could take so much out of a man..

Shuffling off his shoes, he realises he’s not alone and sighs. He could use a bath, not this conversation. 

“Kakashi, how long have you been waiting?” He turns on the stove to boil of a pot of water. He’s going to need some tea for this. He doesn’t think he’ll share.

“Not long,” the man says from behind him. Oh, I thought he was still on the couch. 

He turns to Kakashi. “Not long? That could mean anything from seven hours to five seconds with you-”

His lecture is cut short when the man collapses his weight onto Iruka, hugging him with his nose digging into his shoulder just a little too hard, and his nails pinching into his skin. It’s too uncomfortable and too desperate for Iruka.

“Ten days, seventeen hours, thirty one minutes and eight seconds.”

“Kakashi, that’s too long.”

“I know,” he nuzzles his face into Iruka’s neck and Iruka laughs.

“Also, I don’t think you were waiting all this time. I think you’ve been running.”

“No.” Kakashi mumbles, “I’ve been busy.”

“Kakashi,” Iruka sighs. “You’ve been busy avoiding me. I know, I saw you jump out a window when you saw me coming, you had a messenger hawk tell me our shogi match was cancelled, and had all they keys changed so that I couldn’t visit for tea or anything else. Multiple times. 

I just want to know why.”

Kakashi tries to hide away into Iruka’s neck.

“Kakashi.”

More silence.

“Hokage-sama, I swear to the gods,” Iruka starts and never finishes the thought because a pair of lips crash into his, it’s messy and hurts, but it’s better than no response.

“I was scared,” he confesses when they break. 

Iruka bites his tongue not to laugh at that, but it’s a vain attempt because a chuckle bubbles out of his mouth and his smile feels too wide to be nonchalant. The look Kakashi gives him is more than enough proof.

“It’s not funny-” Kakashi starts only to be silenced with a quick kiss from Iruka.

It’s softer and warm, and is too short for any one man to fully enjoy.

“I’m scared too.” He begins, cupping his hands alongside Kakashi’s face, smiling so much his face aches, “probably not as much as you are, of course, what with your life experiences and all,” he pout he receives for that makes him chuckle, “Kakashi, I’m not going to turn you away. I probably would have done that by now, don’t you think. Sometime around when you had the kids apply for the chunin exams, I was so angry with you for that, I mean Naruto was, is, like my only family in the world. What if he had died. You know what I mean? Just keeled over, I mean he wasn’t very smart and here you had him face off more intelligent and smarter nin! Like the future kazekage! Remember how dangerous he was back then?”

“The kazekage is still dangerous.”  
“Not what I mean, I mean Naruto almosted died. Could have died, and I was so pissed at you for even considering it. But! I got over it, ‘he’s smart,’ I said, ‘Konohana’s Great Copy Nin knows what he’s doing,’ I said. So in the end, I trusted you.”

Kakashi goes silent, soaking it all in, and when he speaks it’s barely a whisper, and Iruka’s sure if he wasn’t listening for it, he’d miss it.

“Do you still trust me?”

“Kakashi, I trust you with running a village. You are sitting in a chair, dictating how we live our lives, and I trust every command you make. Every decision you make. Everything you say, I will trust.”

“That’s not good, what if there was an imposter sitting in that chair, doing all of those things. You’d blindly follow them?”

“Kakashi,” Iruka waves his pinky that’s tied to Kakashi’s, “I’m your soulmate. I know you.”

Kakashi scoffs at that, wrapping his own pinky around Iruka’s, “you don’t have to know someone to be their soul mate.”

“I’ve known you for years, I’ve eaten ramen with you, we went on a picnic once under the guise of a mission after Sasuke left, with Naruto and Sakura. When Naruto left, we started having tea together almost every week.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Kakashi states.

“Kakashi it means I know your habits and your preferences and your idle conversation starters. What you like eating, what colours you like to see, what makes you upset, what makes you happy. What makes you tick. I’d know an imposter the moment they walk, if I didn’t have proof of where you were all the time on my person.”

Kakashi hums to that, and settles to rest his head on Iruka’s shoulder.

They stay like that for a few moments, just comfortable in each other’s embrace, enjoying their company when Iruka thinks of a funny joke and has to share.

“If nothing else assures you, oh great hokage, that this isn’t for naught, remember I’ve seen your face. That I’m looking at it right now.” he says in a light tone.

“That just means I like you.”

Iruka blanks at that.

“A lot, I must confess.”

Iruka is too stunned for words. He had an inkling of an idea, that their relationship was just a tad less strictly platonic than it would have been with someone like Gai, but hadn’t really thought about it after he learned that Kakashi had dated the man when they were teenagers. 

“I was terrified to find anyone other than you. And now that it’s confirmed that you’re, here, I’m terrified anyway.”

“Kakashi, you have to confess before the first kiss,” Iruka manages, “didn’t Icha Icha teach you better than that.” 

“Oh teacher, Icha Icha never had any confessions for love before the sexual encounters. Unless of course you’d have prefered that, which, I myself am not all that hot about, as I don’t think I enjoy sex at all in actuality.”

“That’s fine Kakashi,” Iruka says, smoothing the man’s hair, “a good relationship doesn’t revolve around sex, you know.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

And everything feels calm as they make idle conversation about their days spent away from another. They’re like that for hours, sitting on the tiled floor of the kitchen, wrapped in another’s arms, comfortable in silence and in complaints about how the previous ten days went. Iruka figures it to be love. 

“How do you suppose we tell the kids,” Iruka asks as the morning sun peeks through the curtains, his head lying against Kakashi’s stomach.

“We don’t.” Kakashi says flatly.

“Kakashi,” Iruka lightly smacks the man’s chest.

“I don’t want to deal with that,” he says rolling to his side, throwing Iruka’s head off him, “it’ll be horrible.” 

“It won’t be that bad, It’s not like they’ll react too horribly.” Iruka sighs, getting up off the floor to start at breakfast. 

“Naruto still calls me a pervert and he thinks of you as his father. He’ll hate it.”

“Well I guess.”

“You don’t guess, you know. That brat will be awful about it.” Kakashi gets the eggs out of the fridge, helping Iruka prep their meal.

Iruka thanks him as he takes the carton, “We’ll make it work.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- Please tell me if you see anything odd! bad grammar, bad understandings of tenses, something just doesn't make any sense, it's well appreciated and i'm more than glad to find out how to improve.  
> \- this was posted on my tumblr [here.](http://humblereflection.tumblr.com/post/157268272807/red-strings-and-soulmates-and-what-nonsense)  
> 


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